Position Of The Magnets II

(Click here to see the mpeg movie of this lab!)

Purpose:

We wanted to find out if the paper clip will hold more washers, when we put the magnets in a different position.

Materials:

8 flexible magnets,25x20x5mm with a 5mm hole in the center
2 plastic cups
1 tongue depressor, or wide craft stick
1 jumbo paper clip {paper clip hook}
50 washers, USS standard no. 10

Procedure:

1. Set the cups about 4 inches apart and upside down.
2. Place the tongue depressor on top of the cups.
3. Then position the first magnet as shown on the diagram.
4. Suspend the paper clip from the magnet.
5. Start adding the washers through the paper clip until it falls off.
6. Keep on repeating step 3 and 5 but add another magnet as shown on the diagram below.

This diagram shows the order we added the magnets.

Conclusion:

I learned that if I try an experiment and find out some data then I should do something related to what I did but in a different way, like what we did with the magnets. First we just placed the magnets on top of each other and observed how many washers the paper clip could hold. After that we wanted to see if we could do it in a different way that will allow the paper clip to be stronger and hold more washers, and as you can see in our results compared to the other experiment, it makes a difference how the magnets are placed.